Don’t Mention the Drug War By Richard Cowan In the midst of a presidential election year, Americans rightly expect to hear debates on almost every relevant topic. However, one compellingly relevant subject has been missing from the debate: the Drug War. When Americans talk about needing more security, the enormous waste of police resources expended on the Drug War—which results in hundreds of thousands of arrests each year for small amounts of marijuana—is rarely mentioned. Civil rights advocates frequently cite statistics showing that black and Hispanic people are far more likely to be CIGARETTES
480,000
laws had a 24.8% lower mean annual opioid overdose mortality rate... compared with states without medical cannabis laws. Examination of the association between medical cannabis laws and opioid analgesic overdose mortality in each year after implementation of the law showed that such laws were associated with a lower rate of overdose mortality that generally strengthened over time....” If medical marijuana was available nationwide, that would save many more lives. Public discourse on the subject continues across the nation. But just don’t mention the Drug War. And that’s just the beginning of the
AMERICAN DEATHS IN 2014
ALCOHOL OVERDOSES
2,200
TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS
DRUG OVERDOSES
32,675
47,055
GUNS
MARIJUANA
arrested for drug crimes—and be more severely punished—than whites, even though use rates are very similar. Public health is naturally a major issue in the election—excepting the casualties of both drugs and the Drug War. Absurdly, drug-overdose deaths now exceed both deaths from traffic accidents and those from gun violence; in 2014, 12,591 Americans were killed by guns and 32,675 died in traffic accidents, but there were 47,055 drug-overdose deaths. That year, there were also 2,200 fatal alcohol overdoses—but zero deaths from marijuana. We all know how difficult it is to reduce gun and traffic deaths, but in October 2014, a hopeful article in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported: “States with medical cannabis
cost of suppressing research on the medical use of cannabis. For decades, NIDA and the DEA have made it almost impossible to study the plant’s potential benefits—even as officials always say that “more research” is needed before they can stop arresting sick people. Even now, the Obama administration is delaying a decision on rescheduling marijuana. Officially, the reason for this government intransigence is that cannabis has “no medical value.” But don’t mention the Drug War! The urgency of these Drug War-related problems seems obvious, but we must start with the most urgent question: Why can’t we even mention the Drug War?
12,591
12 www.freedomleaf.com
0
Richard Cowan is the co-founder of Freedom Leaf.
august 2016